The Bavarian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVB) expects growing problems in medical care provided by practices. More and more regions in the Free State are being classified as “underserved,” said KVB board chairman Christian Pfeiffer on Wednesday at his association’s annual press conference in Munich.
The KVB currently operates two family doctor’s practices in Marktredwitz and Ering am Inn as so-called own facilities because there are no doctors who would like to run practices there as entrepreneurs. Pfeiffer announced that five more in-house facilities would be launched in Bavaria next year. The KVB first resorted to this emergency measure two years ago, but now it needs to be used more and more often.
A main reason for the supply problems is the growing dissatisfaction of many doctors with their own practices, added KVB deputy head Peter Heinz: “The mood has rarely been as bad as it is now.”
The increase in health insurance fees is far from enough to cover the increased costs. As a result, practices are having ever greater problems retaining medical assistants (MFA) through financial incentives. Heinz complained that MFAs were increasingly being poached by clinics and other healthcare facilities: “There is a fight for medical professionals.”
The KVB board member Claudia Ritter-Rupp, who is responsible for the area of psychotherapy, also sees other aspects of the federal government’s policy as dangers for patients. The planned relaxation of cannabis consumption is “highly problematic”. There is a risk, especially in younger people, that cannabis can trigger developmental disorders and psychoses. The federal government should therefore respond to the warnings that various medical associations have been raising for some time, demanded Ritter-Rupp.
The KVB leadership confirms that Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) also has initiatives that are in the interests of doctors and patients. The plan that a certificate should only be required from the fourth day of illness so that parents can receive child sickness benefit is “absolutely going in the right direction,” said KVB boss Pfeiffer.
A trivial limit when checking whether practices pay sufficient attention to the costs when prescribing medicines and aids, which the Federal Ministry of Health wants to introduce, is also “a right step”. But such steps must also be implemented, said Pfeiffer.